Sunday, July 26, 2015

Updated: Chutes and Ladders

Oh, peeps, this one is freakin' BAD. In case I didn't believe that knitting is a language and being rusty is dangerous, I have been disabused of my silly complacency. As Frances suggests in the comments, I should have just ripped it all out. Like back to the start. But of course, that's not how I roll - even when all the markers (no pun intended) point in a certain direction. I don't like to admit defeat. So here's what I did:

I realized there is no way in hell to ease in the excess yarn created by the addition of 12 increases (over 2 places on one side of the sweater) over 72 rows. Of course, I couldn't accept it till I'd spent 3 hours trying to fix the original ladder.

I then hedged my bets and did a mix up of both unpleasant solutions: I ripped back 50ish rows (who the hell can tell - I've spent hours trying to figure that out). But I also opted to try to ease in about 24 rows and 4 stitch increases over two sections on the sweater back - so as not to have to rip back everything. That amount of easing is doable but it has taken hours because there's so much extra yarn to work in that, in order to ensure even tension (never mind original gauge, that's a pipe-dream), I had to veritably (and painstakingly) rug hook along the entire width of the sweater.

Of course, because I removed a zillion markers, ripped back an unknown amount and made decreases on the basis of my original (incorrect) instructions - to say nothing of 3 hours of mind-numbing rug-hooking (see above), it's taken hours to figure out how my new stitch counts align and where the fucking markers need to go. And I'm still not there. Seriously. I estimate it's going to take another hour and I can't even confirm I'll come to the right conclusion - though if there's a way, I will do it!

All told it will likely take me as long to fix this as it would have to reknit the whole body of the sweater, which is criminal. Of course, if I'd paid a modicum of attention I wouldn't be in this boat. I find it hard to be angry - despite the fact that my arms and hands HURT and I haven't even got anywhere (I've simply gone backwards.) But once I do fix this - and rewrite my instructions and get back to square 1, then I'm honour-bound to keep going because it's the only way I'll be able to maintain the momentum and my awareness of the project.

My friends - there's a reason that it's easier to make a sweater in a month (arm/hand happiness notwithstanding) than it is to dither over it during dozens of discontiguous sessions. Your brain has to stay on top of the nuance. Otherwise it's a lot of wasted time and, if you lose attention, tons of wasted effort. Oh well. Live and learn and try again. Can't say I'm loving this project though.

Fucking hell. You know, I've done very little knitting lately (out of practice much?) but I was making solid headway on my Custom Fit sweater till I realized, in rescoping the directions (to knit in the round up to the underarm), that I messed up. How? Well, I wrote my notes in such a way that I actually made the same increases on the back sweater as I did on the front - those devised to give the boob shaping.

It's only an addition of 12 stitches out of 100 (the current back width), but it's over 72 freakin' rows. Which is why I am now trying desperately to redistribute the laddered excess of yarn (having ripped back the relevant columns). This is a mere ONE of the 2 such ladders I'll have to contend with to avoid ripping back 200 stitches over 72 rows (with all kinds of markers in place that would make simply pulling out the stitches very tricky).

I've never done this before, as you can imagine. The only reason I've attempted it is because the idea of ripping back 72 rows of 200 stitches is worse than the idea of figuring out how to ease in this amount of extra yarn. But to perform this fix over 2 sections is really going to push it when it comes to retention of any semblance of my original gauge.

But wait, it gets worse. I went down one increase too many (which amounts to a TOTALLY UNNECESSARY additional 12 rows of extra yarn to ease back into the full sweater and an (albeit minimal) additional erroneous impact I daren't try to correct at this point).

And it gets worse still - before undertaking this insanity, I had to rip back 17 rows to get to this point (not in the round, thankfully) as I'd already started working the flat section (shoulder construction) above the underarms. That rip-back was going to have to happen one way or another cuz, last night, after working those 17 rows, I realized that I'd mistaken the front of the sweater for the back (the darting is different) even though I wrote myself clear notes about how to discern one from the other.

Wow. Sure, much can go wrong by simply missing a couple of cues, symbolized by a 3 word acronym. But when it takes multiple knitting sessions to realize this, the blame is squarely on the knitter. What an unnecessary loss of hours and my body's labour. I am not impressed by myself right now.
Here's the thing, my gauge is already on the loose side (though not as loose as it once was). Yeah, Custom Fit accounts for that, that's its genius - but it can only account for it when I'm not trying to ease in masses of extra yarn (left over after pulling out those extra stitches to reveal those ladders). And it just gets harder to ease in the yarn as I approach the working row (the top / widest part) because there's that much more yarn slack at that point - and so much yarn has already been worked in from below.

Non-knitters, don't even try to contemplate this - just know that I may be fighting a losing battle because the idea of spending 2 - 3 hours fiddling is more palatable to my current knitting-self (she of sometimes pain issues) than ripping back half of the sweater I spent 4 hours putting together. And it's a cool experiment.

As is so often with knitting - it's a whack unknown that I might win or lose. I'm playing the odds.

So, knitter-readers, what's your take? I've been doing a pretty good job (spending TONS of time with the yarn redistribution - I'll show a photo when I finish the first section). That's why it's going to take me 2 - 3 hours, even with the quick fix. I also hope that blocking will correct a myriad of tension issues. But if anyone's tried this before - with success or failure - please do tell. I need all the support I can get.

Sorry, I'll be no help at all. After the swerving was done, I'd rip it down the 72 rows. or perhaps rip it out completely rather than work around those marketers and trying to pick up, etc. Whether I'd then carry on or just abandon the project for a (long) while would be a whole other question. sending sympathy and much admiration for your willingness to turn this into a learning opportunity.

Ummm...I'd rip it out back to whatever stable point you can (even if that's the beginning) and start again. I predict you won't be happy with the outcome otherwise! All that fudging trying to ease the extra yarn into the other stitches just makes the tension all wonky. One or two extra stitches you might be able to hide that way but not 12. This sage advice from a knitter who is currently frogging one entire sweater and part of a second one because they just don't work the way they are! Better to rip and be happy - after the pain of the ripping goes away. Best of luck!

Louisa - your advice is very sound and btw, if this ever happens again (and I really hope it doesn't), I will do just that. I did my weird half-and-half fix and I think it's going to be ok, largely because the yarn is very forgiving and I worked for HOURS retabilizing the tension of the stitches. If I'd tried to ease in any more extra yarn, mind you, it would have been a no go. I feel your frogging pain - pulling out those rows is HORRIBLE!!

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